blues and greens (barson)

xx.

"Okay," Aspen said as she wiped at her eyes, "let's have cake and do birthday stuff."
And that's exactly what they did.
Carisi, with his camera hanging around his neck, went to the refrigerator and pulled out the cake. He hadn't let anyone go near the refrigerator all day, insisting he get whatever anyone needed.
"I have to say," he announced quickly, "when I decorated this, I had no idea how today was going to go. I just knew that this was one of the things Aspen liked since..."
He placed the large sheet cake on the dining table in front of Aspen.
"All the puzzles I did at the office!" She looked at him and grinned, "and our big puzzle family!"
Carisi had very carefully decorated the cake to have blue and purple puzzle pieces all over it and there were seven connected for her seven birthdays. He snapped a few photos of her with the cake before Amanda came to put the candles in it.
Everyone sang Happy Birthday as Amanda put the candles in and carefully lit them.
Carisi took a few more photos to get the process of Aspen giggling while she blew out the candles.
Everyone clapped and cheered for her as the candles went out.

After cake and opening gifts and getting toys, books, and a dress or two, Aspen was handed the one that had Elliot's name on it. It was the last gift.
She very neatly pulled the shiny paper off the box and pulled
it open. She grinned and looked up at Rafa and Liv before to Elliot.
"Thank you," she grinned wider as she produced a small gavel and sound block.
All the kids who'd been playing court cheered with them.
Most of the people in the room knew that court was their new favorite thing to play but there were a few who didn't.
Elliot gave her a small smile, "just don't bonk anyone with it, alright? Your parents will never forgive me."
She giggled, "I won't."
The boys all gathered around her to look at the smooth wooden gavel.
"Maybe we can play court with all the people here," Aspen commented to them.
"After the piñata," Felix nodded and looked at Maddox.
"You'd obviously be the judge," Noah said.
Maddox nodded in agreement.
"Jesse and Jaden on prosecution?" Aspen leaned forward and looked across the table.
"Yeah!" Jesse cheered, bouncing up and down.
Jaden nodded excitedly.
"Who's on trial this time?" Carisi asked as he was cleaning up from the cake.
Noah looked around, there were a lot of people to pick from.
Olivia looked at Elliot and found him already side glancing at her with a small smile on his face. She smiled back and gave a small nod of approval.
He looked back to the kids, the small smile remaining on his face.
"Uncle Fin," Noah pointed.
Fin put a hand to his chest, "what did I do?!"
"You made a comment that made Papi Rafa nervous earlier. You're charged with making him nervous!" Noah nodded.
Rafael laughed once he'd recovered from hearing Noah call him Papi Rafa.
Fin gave a playful glare.
The kids headed to do the piñata which had been hung by Carisi and Fin earlier.
After that, they started organizing everything to play court.
Lucia came to sit with Olivia and Rafael again.
"You got a good bunch of kids," she bumped her shoulder against her son's, "and they like to play court?"
Rafael nodded and smiled, "Noah told them about the work I do and they've been playing court ever since."
"Last week he was found guilty of bedtime fraud," Liv informed her, "the kids had wanted to stay awake two hours later to watch a movie the night before and he told them they could watch it the next day but instead they put him on trial for stealing those two hours from them."
Lucia looked at Rafa with mock surprise, "it's summer vacation!"
He turned to her, "my bedtime was 7:30 until I was twelve! Summer or not!"
That made Lucia laugh again.
The two Barbas started chatting and Olivia forced herself from her chair.
Rafa turned to help her up, "you okay?"
She nodded, "I'm just going to mingle a bit, everyone's been coming to me all day."
He did a silent check in, "let me know if you need me, okay? I'll come over immediately."
Phoebe had been tapped to be a witness and was the first on the stand as the trial began.
Liv made her way slowly to where Cragen, Munch, and Stabler were sitting to watch the trial.
Elliot stood immediately upon seeing her and moved to help her to the couch.
"Thank you," she said softly to him.
He nodded and returned to his seat.
"Hello, Aunt Phoebe, I'm sorry to put you on the stand today," Jesse began.
Phoebe had a tissue that she wiped under her eyes dramatically.
"What a creative group of kids," Munch commented offhandedly, "they always do this?"
"It's Jaden's first but our four and the Rollins girls have been doing this for a week or so," she nodded.
"They switch up jobs?" Cragen asked.
Liv laughed, "they do, but it seems since there's such a crowd, they went to where they're most comfortable. Noah on defense, he likes being like Rafa and Jesse on prosecution to be like Carisi."
"Is Aspen the judge often?" Elliot asked.
Liv shook her head, "she usually lets everyone else pick and then gracefully accepts what's left. You solidified her spot as judge for her birthday. She's only been up there once before, but she loved it."
Elliot looked happy to hear that, "good."
Noah was whispering to Fin.
Fin nodded and smiled a bit as he whispered back.
"How are you, Olivia?" Munch inquired.
"In what sense?" She questioned, "physically or generally?"
"Well, you were shot," he said plainly, "so physically, I would assume you're in pain. I meant generally."
"I'm really good," she smiled at his bluntness, "I'm happy."
"You seem happy," he nodded, "it's really good to see."
"Thanks, John," her heart was so full of joy being here with everyone.
"It is good to see," Elliot added, "you deserve all of this, Liv."
She looked at him, trying to find any sort of envy or malice but he seemed so genuine and happy for her.
"They're right," Cragen nodded.
Olivia felt so happy, these three men had known her at the beginning. They'd known her when she would stay at work for days on end and sleep in the crib, shower in the locker room. They knew her when she had nothing in her fridge because she had nothing to come home to or any reason to fill it when she could just order in when and if she was going to be home. They'd been her first hint of a family. Hearing approval from all three of them made her feel like she'd really made it.
"And you're captain," Munch began.
Cragen said, "as I had hoped. It's where you belong."
"Things fell exactly where they were supposed to," Elliot continued.
Liv put a hand to her chest, "I couldn't have done it without you guys... and I'm sure Fin would be sitting here with us if he wasn't on trial. Almost the original squad."
Munch laughed as he looked around the group and toward Fin, "we got old."
"Speak for yourself, man," Stabler commented.
"Objection!" Noah stood.
"Overruled!" Aspen pointed the gavel at him, "sit down in my courtroom, Mr Benson."
Noah grumbled to Fin as he sat back down.
Jesse went to Jaden and he whispered in her ear, she nodded and turned back to Phoebe.
Liv looked at Rafa.
He was smiling, he looked so full of love for these kids.
"You did good, Liv," Munch commented, "I know it didn't go how you meant it to, but it went the way it was supposed to."
She looked at him.
He was right in a way. Had she and Rafa done things the way they'd joked about all those years ago, she wasn't sure it would've turned out this way. She wasn't ready for Rafa or to receive the love Rafa had to give before now, she had to go through the last few years to really understand that she was ready and deserved it and had they waited until now to try to find a surrogate, she would've felt they were well past the right age to have these kids... she felt awful that they'd all been through such horrific things, but she was so damn happy that they were here and happy now.
Carisi was moving around the fake court snapping photos as Lucia took the stand.
"Hey, Noah," Liv called.
He turned immediately, "yeah?"
"Can we borrow Fin for one minute?"
Noah looked around the court and called for a recess.
Fin came over and sat down, "what's up?"
"Carisi," she waved him over.
All four men seemed to realize at the same time what she wanted and shifted to surround her.
Carisi smiled, "alright, guys. Everyone smile."
And they did.
This was the first evolution of Olivia's family; Cragen, Munch, Fin, and Elliot. They'd known each other for so long at this point that it really was like they were family.
"Thanks," Liv said after they'd taken a few photos, "I'll need a copy of that."
"You're getting copies of all of them," Carisi smiled.
"Good, thank you."
He smiled and nodded before heading off to take photos of Jaden and Jesse, who had their heads close together discussing their next play.
Noah came over, "I think we're losing the jury."
This made all the adults laugh.
Noah smiled, "I'm glad you all find this funny."
Olivia held an arm toward the boy.
He came over and hugged carefully against her side, "this is a good day, momma."
"It sure is," she kissed his head.
"You're pretty good on defense, kid," Fin commented.
"I'm making it up as I go along," he shrugged.
"Don't tell Barba, but I think that's what they all do," Fin commented.
Elliot laughed, "I don't know about all of them. Barba is meticulous."
"But that one?" Munch pointed at Elliot.
Elliot pointed back, "you remember him? God, that must've been eighteen years ago."
Cragen squinted, "I don't remember most of the defense lawyers, but I do remember Alex kicking a- butt," he looked at Noah.
"You were gonna say a bad word," Noah raised an eyebrow, "in front of my mom."
That made Munch and Fin laugh.
"I apologize," Cragen said to the boy.
Noah squinted, "just don't let it happen again."
Aspen banged the gavel.
Fin and Noah went back to court.
"You'll have to make sure to email me a copy of that photo," Munch said.
"You still trust email?" Elliot snorted.
"Barely," Munch replied, "the internet became way more dangerous than even I anticipated."
Liv went to stand again.
Elliot moved to help her.
"I gotta make my rounds," she said.
"We understand, go do mom things," Cragen smiled, "we'll be here."
Olivia made her way to Amanda, who was standing with Lucy and Phoebe, now that she wasn't on the stand anymore.
Amanda immediately grabbed a stool and helped Liv onto it, "easy does it."
Liv gave her a grateful pat on the shoulder, "what're we talking about here?"
"Aspen's suit," Lucy answered, "why she'd gone with grey."
"Billie told her that the grey made her eyes look sparklier," Amanda informed.
Liv smiled, "I love that."